DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Forget pitching, even the way Yusei Kikuchi moves through the world feels so much different than it did a year ago.
When camp opened in 2023, Kikuchi was coming off a dreadful debut with the Blue Jays and competing for a job in the rotation. He’d fallen out of that rotation and fallen out of favor with his first impression, so often spiraling in the early innings, his relationship with the strike zone growing more unpredictable by the week.
Then, there’s today. Kikuchi bounced down the dugout steps before his Grapefruit League debut Monday toward Vladimir Guerrero Jr. They shook hands, then raised their arms into the air for a sudden, choreographed dance, Kikuchi swaying his hips from side to side along with Guerrero while Santiago Espinal beamed in the background.
Kikuchi Day isn’t a scary concept now. The Blue Jays don’t need to tiptoe into those games like they’re walking on a frozen pond for the first time that winter, unsure how thick the ice is. To call Kikuchi beloved in the Blue Jays clubhouse doesn’t even fully capture it. The confidence vibrates out of Kikuchi now. That 2022 season feels so far away.
“Last year and the year before, you were hoping for results. This year, where he is right now, he’s expecting them. That’s the biggest difference,” manager John Schneider said. “His confidence is obviously there. When you’re working on certain things and your mechanics -- it’s like a hitter -- you kind of forget about the compete factor and the execution factor. With Yusei, he knows exactly what he has to do now.”
The first glimpse on Monday looked just like 2023, a confident pitcher fully embracing their talents. Kikuchi threw two scoreless innings, struck out three and toyed with his new changeup against the Pirates in the Blue Jays' 8-4 win. This pitch used to be a split-change, but Kikuchi has moved to a circle-change grip in an effort to get more out of that pitch.
This is the exact type of thing that Kikuchi didn’t have the room to do last spring.
“Last year, I wanted to leave a really good impression after the season I had the year before,” Kikuchi said through a club interpreter. “I was giving it my all every pitch, not wanting to give up a run, every time I was out there.”
There’s no job to win now. Kikuchi could have given up six runs on Monday, and as long as there were no red flags with his velocities, it wouldn’t have mattered much. That’s what a 3.86 ERA over a career-high 167 2/3 innings earns you.
The Blue Jays’ staff has raved about Kikuchi’s offseason. When Schneider was asked which players entered camp in better shape, it was surprising when his first thought was Kikuchi. Even staff who work at the Blue Jays’ player development complex have gone out of their way to comment on how often Kikuchi was there and how early he’d arrive. He’s earned the reputation as an extremely dedicated player for a reason, even if we didn’t see the results start to show until the spring of 2023.
“He came in hot and he was saying, ‘OK, I’m better than I was a year before,’” Schneider recalled. “He’s taken another step forward this year.”
Kikuchi’s curveball changed so much for him in 2023 and he hopes his changeup works the same magic this year. He can already do so much with a fastball that sits near 95-96 mph from the left side, his body uncoiling to produce so much more than you’d expect given his size.
Still, Kikuchi knows how quickly these things can come and go. Even his All-Star season with the Mariners in 2021 included a significant downturn in the second half, so he understands that success today doesn’t promise anything tomorrow. It’s almost as if he’s proceeding with cautious optimism, but an inch behind that, there’s confidence.
“Just because the year before was good doesn’t mean that this year is going to go well. That’s not a guarantee,” Kikuchi said. “I think I have a higher ceiling and things to work on still. I think I could be even better this year.”
Confidence is a fine start, but rarely do you see it transfer so clearly to the mound as it has with Kikuchi. It’s in his pitch selection, his execution, even those dramatic spins off the mound following a strikeout.